Ireland head coach Andy Farrell said he was “unbelievably proud” of the fight his players showed after receiving a flurry of cards in a hectic defeat by South Africa in Dublin.
After James Ryan’s yellow card was upgraded to a 20-minute red, Sam Prendergast, Jack Crowley, Andrew Porter and Paddy McCarthy were all sin-binned as Ireland fell to 24-13 loss to the world champions.
Farrell was upbeat about his side’s response to a chaotic first half which Ireland ended with 12 players and trailing 19-7 as he took issue with a reporter saying the opening 40 minutes had been “borderline shambolic”.
“I said chaotic. Yeah, I won’t repeat your word because I think you’re wrong,” said Farrell.
“I haven’t seen a game like that ever, and you think you’ve seen it all, and I haven’t seen a game like that ever.
“I suppose, first and foremost, you look at yourself and why things have happened. So, we’ll do that, and make sure that we learn the lessons from that.
“But my overriding thought of the game is that I’m unbelievably proud, so for you to start a conversation off like that doesn’t sit well.”
He added: “For all sorts of reasons, I thought going down to 12 men, how the lads came out and showed the bottle for the country, certainly in that first 10 minutes of that second half, it was absolutely amazing.”
